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Fuck You, Capitalism!

To make myself feel better about operating in/having my soul crushed by a capitalist society, I sometimes make lists of the ways in which I operate outside of/along alternate paths within the system. Here are some of the things I do:

1. Get myself (bike) to work
2. Cut my own hair.
3. Make my own pizza dough, barbecue sauce, buttermilk, empanada dough, granola, tortilla chips, hummus, chicken stock, chicken wings, yogurt, cheese, salad dressing, fried pickles…you get the picture.
4. Fix the toilet.
5. Compost and prep soil on my land.
6. Grow vegetables and flowers.
7. Pickle vegetables.
8. Make my own holiday cards.
9. Donate and request books through Paperback Swap.
10. Get clothes from friends or clothing swaps.
11. Take online courses through Coursera.
12. Use home remedies like: ginger tea for a stomachache, olive oil for chapped lips, oatmeal baths for dry/itchy skin, face massages for headaches and baking-powder-and-vinegar scrubs for poison ivy or bug bites.
13. Steam fancy clothes in the bathroom when I take a shower.
14. Make rabbit toys out of wine corks, cardboard, girl scout cookie boxes and old Advil containers.
15. Use old toothbrushes, baking soda, and vinegar as cleaning supplies.
16. Live in a group house/share utilities and space with other people.
17. Keep the number of belongings I have to a minimum so I don’t have to hire movers to relocate.
18. Build my own raised bed to garden in and make a composter out of a tin garbage can, hammer, and nails.
19. Wrap presents in newspaper or brown bags.
20. Wash plastic sandwich bags.
21. Take advantage of free events like art nights, live music, and movie screenings.

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13 thoughts on “Fuck You, Capitalism!”

I do some of the things you do (your gardening and food-related skills are WAY beyond mine), and I:
– use my local freecycle for things I need around the house (freecycle.org)
– wash and condition my hair with baking soda, apple cider vinegar, and water
– volunteer my time in exchange for attendance at dance events
– attend lectures at Knowledge Commons DC (knowledgecommonsdc.org)
– offer my group house as a free venue for gatherings like a weekly creative writing/work session (with crowdsourced snacks), so we don’t have to go to a cafe
– volunteer for projects and nonprofits whose causes I support
– like all of our editors, I work on this blog for free!

I:
-when I can, I dumpster dive for food instead of going to the grocery store
-shop exclusively at thrift stores instead of buying new clothes
-bike everywhere
-am in the process of building a green roof/urban food garden in exchange for rent
-cut hair for my friends

Oh! Also I lend books to my friends, and read books my friends lend to me! One such book that’s kind of perfect for this topic is Poorcraft, a comic book guide to living well on less. It includes recipes for making your own cleaning supplies and instructions on home gardening, among other things.

I like your list! I do eight of those items and will attempt to do more. I really try to focus on 17 and not just buy things to replace perfectly good things just to do it. Nor buy things that I don’t need just to fill space. I focus there because I’m surrounded by many who consume a ton.

But I’m gonna be THAT guy and suggest that maybe it’s not capitalism that’s crushing your soul but hyperconsumption? Capitalism, I think, allows you to get many of the tools and ingredients and other things you use to avoid mass consumption. And decent quality tools and materials, too! Unless you get all those things for free.

I like capitalism at its base and many of the things that have come from it, including lots of technology. I do not like landfills and malls full of the obsessive results of mass consumption. Maybe that’s exactly what you meant and I’m being nitpicky for no reason — if so, I apologize for waylaying the conversation!

I mostly “curse” capitalism in jest–por ejamplo, whenever my girlfriend and I are lying in bed on a sunny morning putting off going to work, we ask each other why we can’t just stay home, and then answer each other with “BECAUSE OF CAPITALISM!” I think there are better systems, but I’m well aware that economic systems are immensely complex, and I can’t begin to understand how they function.

When I say I’m bypassing capitalism, I’m really saying that, on an individual level, I’m developing a barter economy in my community, primarily with goods that often have been furnished by a capitalist society. But I’m changing the way I interact with that capitalist system a little bit in ways that make me feel powerful or healthy.

I’m sure someone with more experience in the subject could intelligently explain the close relationship between capitalism and gender inequality–that’s not me. My intention in writing this post was to talk about choices I make that make my life healthier or make me feel powerful and/or benefit my community. A big part of feminism is intersectionality–you can easily argue that making choices to reduce consumption, share space, recycle, etc…helps women because it helps everyone live in a cleaner, safer world.

Well, I’m not the OP, and Logan and I might have different opinions, but I think there are several important ways that our national and global economic systems, in practice, intersect with gender-related privilege. When I was composing this comment I realized I have so much on this that I’ll probably make a full post on it, but I can sum it up in four categories:
1. Workplace discrimination
2. Sweatshops and human rights violations
3. Hyperconsumerism and sexist advertising
4. Environmental damage

Also, if I may, there’s one here that I think isn’t explicitly ‘political’ but still defiantly anticapitalist and key to maintaining our senses of self in the midst of the prevailing capitalist ethic we inhabit:

– carving out time to feel strong feelings that have nothing to do with exchanging money